Without them, the colored plates were not around: The Aachen Printe is
an epitome of German Christmas cookies. Whether hard or soft,
decorated with almonds, cherries, chocolate or sugar icing - the sweet
and spicy gingerbread scent of this is simply part of the Christmas
season.
But how did the career of this dark Aachen biscuit? The origins are
in the Belgian town of Dinant search on the Meuse, of which the 15th
Century was a gingerbread recipe adopted and modified. Now only
allowed to make Aachen Printen, who actually is located in Aachen. The
EU protects the label printe Aachen - but not the exact recipe.
What is baked in it, is a closely guarded secret of the fine print
bakeries and justified differences in taste of the sweet sweet tooth.
When you look at the declaration of ingredient information, the
typical German Christmas treat turns out to be multi-cultural product.
Blend into their ingredients from almost all parts of the earth.
In addition to flour and sugar syrup, it is mainly the exotic spices
that give the printe their special touch. Aachen, the city with the
warm springs, came early in their enjoyment and use it generously:
cinnamon, cloves, allspice, cardamom, anise, coriander, ginger and
orange peel as well. In particular, its high content of essential oils
gives these spices their flavor. In the crop department at the
Botanical Museum of the Botanical Garden of the Free University,
visitors can discover the vast variety of plant parts were in our
kitchen collection and from what parts of the world they come from.
Cinnamon is one of the oldest spices used by humans. The fine, fine
aroma emanates from the bark of a laurel family, the cinnamon tree
(Cinnamomum verum) from Sri Lanka. The wafer-thin layers of bark
scraped curl during drying, and become like little cigars put
together. Who wants stronger flavor, takes the thick cortical layer of
another tree species: aromaticum in China and India back home
Cinnamomum.
In the Eastern Mediterranean area is the home of anise (Pimpinella
anisum), a relative of caraway. Its spicy-sweet fruits are elongated
and develop their full flavor until the camps. Spherical, however, are
the fruits of his close relatives, the Middle East domiciled in
coriander (Coriandrum sativum).
A relative of the myrtle from the Moluccas provides for the Aachen
Printe the pungent cloves. There are still closed flower buds of the
clove tree (Syzygium aromaticum), which are similar in their dried
form of a small nail. They are cut or after prolonged boiling,
carefully opened, do the individual petals and stamens of flowering
carnations to the fore. Related to the carnation is the allspice tree
(Pimenta dioica) of the New World. His brown-red berries are still
harvested before maturity and dried.
Not from the orange is the orange, but in North India by the native
bitter orange or sour orange (Citrus aurantium). The round, dark
orange fruits have a very thick and warty skin. These crops would not
taste right, because the meat tastes bitter and is barely edible.
Candied fruit peels in the sugar solution, however, find lovers.
Without the migration commenced before thousands of people who had
many herbal gift in the luggage, our world would look very different
today. At Christmas we were sitting then perhaps with a carrot in your
hand in front of the Christmas tree, beetroot would eat oatmeal and
drink. For as "poor" is important to our region and local crops here.
Geshe hollow stone
The author has a degree in biology at the Botanical Garden and
Botanical Museum Berlin-Dahlem. The museum is open daily from 10 -
open 18 clock, even on Mondays. Address: Queen Luise-Str. 6-8 (101
bus, express bus X83), 14195 Berlin.
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